You’ve been patiently waiting for months and it’s so close you can almost taste the hot dogs and burgers grilling at tailgate parties outside Autzen Stadium and Reser Stadium.

No. 4 Oregon (preseason coaches poll) and Oregon State open fall camp Monday and their 2014 season openers are Aug. 30.

Will the road to the Pac-12 championship travel through Eugene this year with quarterback Marcus Mariota winning the Heisman Trophy and leading Oregon to a spot in the inaugural four-team College Football Playoff?

Will Oregon State, behind a Heisman candidate of its own in quarterback Sean Mannion, confound the so-called experts and challenge Oregon and Stanford for supremacy in the Pac-12 North?

Answers will unfold in the next few months, but for now hope springs eternal for all 128 Football Bowl Subdivision schools across the country.

Closer to home, No. 11 Stanford is the defending two-time Pac-12 champion. The Cardinal have taken Oregon out of national championship consideration two years in a row, but the Ducks will be poised for revenge Nov. 1 at Autzen.

In a vote by conference media members, Oregon was picked to win the Pac-12 North and defeat No. 7 UCLA in the Pac-12 championship game, which will be played Dec. 5 at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

The Beavers, in their familiar underdog role, were picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 North behind Oregon, Stanford and No. 25 Washington.

There are significant questions for Oregon and OSU to address heading into fall camp, and much rides on the health of their veteran quarterbacks. The Ducks’ losses last season at Stanford and Arizona came when Mariota had limited mobility due to a knee injury.

OSU started strong the past two seasons — 6-1 in 2013 and 6-0 in 2012 — but faltered when the stronger teams appeared on its schedule. The Beavers have made back-to-back bowl game appearances, but it’s been six years since OSU was in the Rose Bowl equation late in the season.

OSU coach Mike Riley, the dean of Pac-12 coaches in his 14th season, needs to make sure the Beavers get out of the gate unscathed in the season opener against Football Championship Subdivision opponent Portland State. The Beavers were stunned in season-opening home losses to FCS teams Sacramento State in 2011 and Eastern Washington last year.

Oregon’s Mark Helfrich begins his second year at the helm facing great expectations. Despite setting a school record for first-year coaches with 11 wins last season, road losses to Stanford and Arizona still resonate, and Helfrich hasn’t convinced everyone that he was the right choice to replace Chip Kelly.

The beauty of college football is every year is different and every game matters. Fall camp sets the table for the main course.